GAZA, (PIC)
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor announced that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) killed 345 Palestinians and wounded 770 others in just seven days (April 20-26), emphasizing that at least 94% of the victims were civilians.
The Euro-Med Monitor said in a press statement on Monday that 51% of the victims during that period were children, 16% of them were women and 8% of them were elderly. Field verification also showed that at least 63 of the 81 adult male victims were working in civilian jobs or independent professions unrelated to any military or organizational activity, further confirming the predominantly civilian nature of this group.
The Euro-Med confirmed that there is no reliable information indicating that the adult male victims, for whom no detailed data is available, were involved in combat or linked to military activities.
The Human rights group stressed that this unprecedented rise in the number of civilian casualties coincides with the continued issuance of false media statements by the Prime Minister of the occupation, Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he publicly denies targeting civilians, in a blatant attempt to mislead international public opinion and cover up the crimes committed on the ground.
The Euro-Med pointed to the IOF’s deliberate use of drones to target children, women and unarmed civilians, and the deliberate targeting of temporary shelters and displacement tents with heavy missiles or suicide drones.
It noted that the recent Israeli investigations on some of the IOF crimes lack independence and seriousness and do not exempt it from its obligations under international law.
The Euro-Med condemned the international silence towards the mass killings of Palestinians, considering it a moral failure and a serious breach of the legal obligations of states and international community, as well as a clear failure to comply with the legal obligation to prevent the crime of genocide and punish its perpetrators in accordance with the provisions of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
